In the Pagan community, there are few among us who haven't heard the term "witch wars," but now we can add "dueling Druids" to the lexicon. Apparently, over in Great Britain, two groups of Druids are battling over what to do with some exhumed skeletons. On the one side, there's King Arthur Uther Pendragon, who appears in the news just about any time there's a solstice celebration, and his group, the Council of British Druid Orders, or COBDO. On the opposite side is a splinter group, known to some as COBDO West, and Paul Davies, Druid Chief Reburials Officer.
As near as I can figure out, the snarking began when some 4,000-year-old skeletons were dug up near Stonehenge. They are currently on display at the Alexander Keiller Museum in Wiltshire. The folks from COBDO West want to see the remains released from the museum to be reburied. So does Pendragon and the mainstream COBDO group -- but they're mad that COBDO West has taken the initiative to place the request.
Britain is estimated to have around 10,000 practicing Druids today, and most of them don't belong to either COBDO group. In fact, a lot of them think the battling between Pendragon and Davies borders on the ridiculous. Emma Restall Orr, a Warwickshire teacher, says, ‘A lot of people are embarrassed by it all — very embarrassed... They’re feisty, burly lads who are very much on the edge of druidism but are rowing in public and giving druids a bad name.’
The one thing that everyone seems to agree on is that the Wiltshire skeletons should be reburied. Maybe in addition to that, these guys could try to work together for the greater good, instead of fighting over who's got a bigger sword.
As near as I can figure out, the snarking began when some 4,000-year-old skeletons were dug up near Stonehenge. They are currently on display at the Alexander Keiller Museum in Wiltshire. The folks from COBDO West want to see the remains released from the museum to be reburied. So does Pendragon and the mainstream COBDO group -- but they're mad that COBDO West has taken the initiative to place the request.
Britain is estimated to have around 10,000 practicing Druids today, and most of them don't belong to either COBDO group. In fact, a lot of them think the battling between Pendragon and Davies borders on the ridiculous. Emma Restall Orr, a Warwickshire teacher, says, ‘A lot of people are embarrassed by it all — very embarrassed... They’re feisty, burly lads who are very much on the edge of druidism but are rowing in public and giving druids a bad name.’
The one thing that everyone seems to agree on is that the Wiltshire skeletons should be reburied. Maybe in addition to that, these guys could try to work together for the greater good, instead of fighting over who's got a bigger sword.
And this is the kind of thing that gives the bad publicity about all things Pagan more fuel! And wow talk about hokey, plastic bead, how-many-stereotypes-can-we-indulge-in-at-a-time farces! King Arthur Uther Pendragon?!?! Seriously? All we need is a couple guys on bagpipes furiously playing Dueling Banjos at each other.
It does, sadly, bring to mind a drunken brawl at the Ren Faire, doesn’t it?
“I’m in charge!”
“No, *I* am, damn it!”
“Are not.”
patti
Very Monty Pythonesque! And are you sure it was the size of their swords they were fighting about? >.> Reminds me of when my kids were little and I was doing child care. 2 year olds fight over the darndest things and one day my younger one was going at it with his friend. My husband suddenly says to me, “Oh, let’s just pull off their diapers and see whose is bigger!”
fascinating debate, between the orthodox and the iconoclastic divisions…
Hedge Druidery springs to mind as the possible answer, the free movement of unpartisan Druids, not tied to any ’school’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbaHHQFxW50